Spreadsheet Models for Managers

Getting Access to Spreadsheet Models for Managers

If you use Excel to model businesses, business processes, or
business transactions, this course will change your life. You’ll learn how to create tools for yourself that will amaze
even you. Unrestricted use of this material is available in two ways.

As a stand-alone Web site

It resides on your computer, and you can use it anywhere. No need for Internet access.

At this Web site

If you have access to the Internet whenever you want to view this material, you can purchase on-line access.
Unlimited usage. I’m constantly making improvements and you’ll get them as soon as they’re available.

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Spreadsheet Models for Managers

Mixed in with explanatory descriptions, justifications, and other material

Basic strategy

Copy the document(s) into Word

Delete anything that isn’t a requirement

Sort what remains

Split compound requirements into series of single requirements

Edit each item to simplify it

This method will work with any text editor, but since you’ll need to submit your requirements
lists in Word, you might as well use Word. The basic idea is that by using all of the
text of the document, it’s difficult to miss a requirement.

Over the years, students have submitted hundreds of course projects.
Having worked with these teams, and graded their submissions, we’ve noticed patterns in the
kinds of issues that tend to be challenging for project teams and individuals as they
develop their projects. The most common traps are summarized in a Web page: “Common Mistakes in Past
Student Projects.” It isn’t required reading, but we do recommend it.

We’ve collected examples of course projects students have submitted over the years. They’re
stored in the Course
Project Library.

Because we change the project requirements every year, the projects in the library aren’t
necessarily precise examples of what you’ll be doing, but they do give you some insight into the
kind of thing we’re looking for.

Most important, in the Final Report is a section called Lessons Learned. If you take time to
read the Lessons Learned from these projects, you’ll be able to avoid the troubles many of your
predecessors encountered. There’s little point in repeating the mistakes of others, so take a
look at their lessons learned.

In years past, we’ve learned that what makes a model dynamic — as opposed to static — can be
difficult to grasp. If you have some doubts yourself, and you haven’t yet looked at the reading on
Models vs. Tools, we believe that you
will find it helpful.